Whenever new cards or a new prebuilt come out, Worthing's always chomping at the bit to figure out all the strategic ins and outs. Here's his strategy guide to playing with the new Orks prebuilt!

Hello iczers, worthing here to help you out with the new ork prebuilt file. We haven't released a prebuilt file in quite awhile but orks are a very strong and simple file that would really help new players and would give some veterans a new file to play at a great price. If you have the gran to buy this prebuild and are interested in how orks play I highly suggest picking the file up in the shop. Not sure if you like orks? Well I will go over the pros and cons to help you decide if you like them as well as helping you play them.

Let us take a look at the file list first.

3x Grebados

3x Orc Commander

3x Giant Orc

3x Orc Bombadier

3x EX Giant Orc

3x Smart Orc

1x Dragon Breath

1x Fireball Breath

1x Dryad

1x Salamander

1 EX Girl Mercenary

1 Fire Arrow

The Magician / Primrose

Soul skills

1. Henrietta

2. Lycanthrope Scylla

3. Ant Swarm

4. Revenant

5. Skeleton Warrior

On paper they look fairly strong and after testing this file a few times in folrart I personally think it is very strong and can be modified in many ways to your liking. Also worth noting is that the prebuild gives you 7 EX cards and 2 3* rarity cards. For those of you who are not aware Henrietta's soul skill is just like Asuet and Distrier and is a core card in many level 3 rush files. Next let us look at the usual way to play the file and do some simple math to see why orks can be very strong.

Looking at this build you can see that playing EX giant ork on turn 1 is the safest and strongest card to open with. Next EX mercenary girl, salamander, or dryad will be your best bet so you can set a level 3 unit on turn 3 (generally grebados or ork commander). Lets assume your opponent is plays his first two turns passively by playing refugee citizens and divine impact and you expect him/her to play folrart guardian on turn 3. Your best bet against most players that play passively on the first two or three turns is to try and get grabados out as soon as possible to snowball your orks and take out their high level units. Back to the example, lets say you played EX giant ork and dryad on your first two turns since you expect him to play a few bigger refess units and you want to make your ork a bit tankier and get to your first soul skill to get 1 more sp to play more units. Next grebados will be your best bet to take out those big solar kingdom units we have all come to know and love. On turn 4 you should probably play EX mercenary girl and following up with a level 3 ork or two depending on how some agility rolls go. Their are times to not rush grebados like against files that can get around his action skill by draining sp or can just return him and kill your other orks. In these games depending on what cards your opponent played early it can be better to play Ork commander or Giant ork on turn 3 to pressure and do as much damage as you can early to make your opponent spend sp on reviving and such. One last thing to mention is ork bombardier and smart ork are great for late game since smart ork is much better when you get the sp to rank him up and later in the game you may want bombardier in the front row to hit smaller units in your opponents back row. Now that I have went over some generic and basic game play with orks lets look at the pros and cons of playing them.

Pros

Pierce Defense

Orks are tanky

Snowball due to grebados

Ork commander can make orks a lot stronger and one ork faster

Easy to use

Tons of ways to modify the file and play it differently

Grebados heals orks

Grebados can revive and buff an ork

Cons

Easy to disrupt by moving units or engaging

Most orks cannot iczer attack

Returns can stop your units from getting strong

Most orks cannot rest

Ant swarm can be risky and may nullify ork commander's start skill

Next I have to different games where I show and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of orks. Thanks to Jazzock for helping me make these videos.

As you can see getting your units moved or engaged can really cluster your field with useless or unproductive units. Also worth noting is I should have moved my grebados to the back row so I could use bombardier more. Its not unbeatable and can be worked around if you become familiar with the problem too.

There are plenty of other ways to play orks but personally I like this file the most. Check out the forums to see what everyone else has to say about orks and put your thoughts in as well. Thanks for reading my guide!

More Pros and ConsProsYou don't have to click attack for some of your units. Aww yeah. Less buttons to mash.You're in good condition even if you're on 3rd copies of your okrs (except for grebados)Grebados is like a mini crest spy--can ruin a lot of ss and strategies and puts lp pressure on your opponent In a sense killing that last lp is prototypical gowen playing style (which is good)ConsHard to master. There is a lot of prediction involved. Unforgiving of mistakes, such as missing a pixy lock or screwing up unit placement.None of the orks have a double hit ability--actually a huge con because even if an ork is buffed to 200 attack either with grebados or with help of a soul like chiruru, can at most kill one unit. There are few units (looking at dilate and phoenix chick) that needs multiple attacks to kill it.

Modded OrksWorthing's mod uses a lot of low rarity cards, especially ones easily obtainable like those in beginner's packs. I'll just assume you're feeding the game some money and have most of the multiuse meta cards.

Terms Used1. t1, t2Turn 1, turn 22. SPSpirit points or things you need to cast units, grimores, or use some skills.3. GrimsGrimores4. Set PhaseA resource as important as sp. You play one card per set phase.5. CopiesRepeats of the same card in a file. Up to 3 copies in a file. 3rd copy is usually the last copy, meaning you have no more copies of that card to revive with during the burial phase. If you have multiple copies of the same card out (only possible with non-character cards), 2nd and 3rd copies can be last copies.6. SSSoul Skills. Triggering them means enough lp, depending on the soul skill. Iczering triggers your opponent's ss while burying your unit triggers your own ss. Time your ss right (and mess up your opponent's ss timing) for a victory!7. LPLife Points8. LP PressureLP=0 you lose. LP pressure means you're running low on lp so you can't afford to play as many sac units or have a 3rd copy of a main unit killed.9. Sac unitsSacrificial Units. You usually do not revive them. Good sac units have an open and/or are dangerous on the field if not taken out in addition to being low level. They trigger your ss when they die. Compared to Main Units which you usually revive.10. FilespaceFiles have 25+5 soul cards. You can't fit everything you want in there.11. TechsCards that you pack 1 or 2 of usually for open skills or for a specific matchup.12. Mid/Big/RushRefers to the level of the main units in your file. Bigs are around level 7-9. Mids 3-5. Rush 2-3.13. LashShort for backlash, which happens when both you and your opponent play the same card the same turn. Sends cards to cemetery and does not refund sp for both.14. LockSome cards like archer greatsword mage pixy locks or prevents certain cards from being played for some turns. Lock your opponent's key cards to prevent them from entering the field so you can keep on destroying their current field/iczering their lp.14. Tight SP GameThink of the game as a way you can invest resources. Putting sp into spheres allows you to bring out bigger units. Putting sp into monsters is like banking them in some ability that you get. A tight sp game is when one of your resources, SP, is used in the most efficient way possible. In the case of orks, it's usually leaving 1sp during your actual turn so grebados can use his skill. Of course there are some exceptions. One is if there is a unit that can drain that sp away. Two is if you're sure your orks won't be killed that turn.

Modded Orks FAQ1. Why are there refess cards here?Orks have elements of refess in them (without too much). They buff, revive, and are only strong when there are a lot of them on the field. I wanted to further highlight those abilities. Of course, they are not perfectly refess as refess likes to rest and orks can only attack (which is a gowen theme). The lp pressure generated by grebados iczer and high attack is also a gowen theme.

2. What is the open?Emerald Carbuncle. The second card is usually either grebados, ex giant ork, salamander, mage pixy, or greatsword pixy depending on what your opponent does. I'll leave it to you to experiment with what works with what.

4. Why only one buncle? If you lash the buncle, you'll probably lash the buncle again t2. JUst play either mage pixy (if you see gowen) or salamander (if you don't see gowen). If for some reason you suspect a shade t2 after carbuncle play a lvl 2 instead. Keep the 1 refess if you lash for oversoul.

5. Why play salamander t2? No one even has a unit on the field!Please don't play ex mercenary girl t2. The reason why you play salamander is because you want to play a lvl1 so that you have 3 sp next turn for a level 3 that turn or the turn after. You don't want to skip or play ex mercenary girl because they do not allow you to trigger your first ss, which you need to help set up your field, both to prevent damage while setting up (revives drain your sp and burns copies) and to give you sp for quicker setup. Salamander is also a dangerous unit so that if your opponent does not kill it, it'll do 30 damage hopefully killing one of your opponent's main units (does not mean you should always attack with salamander). In addition, salamander will also tank a hit the turn after if your opponent do not kill it.

6. Explain the ss.Emana 1st is preferred because you want to stall until you have more orks out. Sp+1 also gives you the ability to play a lvl 3 turn 4 if emerald carbuncle, which you played t1 gets killed the first turn that it is out, and still leave 1sp for grebados revive in case ex giant ork gets killed. Without that sp+1, you'll have a hard time finding the sp to bring out your 3rd ork.Gafc 2nd gives you some damage and takes sp away from your opponent. When you trigger your 2nd ss, you should have a lot of loose sp left, so if you use a sp+1 ss, you wouldn't be playing a tight sp game (see what is tight sp game). Damage is preferred to engage here because there is a good possibility you want the offensive power to field wipe the opponent and then iczer into a dangerous ss like assassin.Emana 3rd is just to lead into Invisible Druid 4th. Rasam is not as good as Emana because Rasam engages 2 units and Druid targets random engage unit. Therefore, druid will not return a target unit (instead forcing you to take a roll between two).Invisible Druid is a removal ss. Removal means anything that instantly takes a unit out of the field, either back to card file, to cemetery, or remove from play. A form of removal is usually needed in all files because there will be units that your units cannot deal with. They are also powerful since they give you a mixture of field advantage (unit no longer on field), sp advantage (unit's banked sp is removed), and set phase advantage. Most choose to do it with ss, but some files can use grims (return/bitter destiny) or units (diondora). The most common and least rare removal ss is assassin (send one friendly unit to cemetery, send one disengaged enemy unit to cemetery). I've found that you have too little set phases in this file to use assassin and usually assassin shouldn't be used in a combo file or a refess-like file. Try to trigger this ss the same turn or the turn after emana ss gets triggered. Otherwise you have to use a set phase and 2 sp to use petrification to get it to work. (Sometimes using petrification is not worth it).Zangy 5th Usually you need more units to iczer not more sp to iczer endgame. The target damage can win you games. Like all 3lp ss can backfire. Use what you like. I like zangy. Hirume is also a good choice and can get you back one of your revival grims in case your opponent goes on damage open spam mode.

7. Any uses for petrification other for the ss?Yes, petrification can be used in multiple clever ways. Most common: engage enemy unit (two of your orks pierce defense so the defense doesn't matter too much), defend your own unit (say if opponent is going to fire arrow, you can engage your own unit and mitigate 30 dmg from fire arrow plus give it 30 def for that turn against unit attacks--if you don't win the roll still get the engage or can give 30 def to one of your units anyways), or dodge disengaged souls (assassin the most common one).

8. How do you fight against removals?Your orks are strong only when they are together. Removals take out one of your orks so they won't be as strong:SS removals: you need to iczer into it with grebados. Time a field wipe, which can be hard to do. Most people do not use invisible druid or engaged removals (they usually break up flow and are hard to use) so rest assured. Additionally if there is only one sac unit and you predict an assassin, a damage grim like fireball breath can take it out.Grim removals: against bitter destiny, you need to know when to have sp (when opponent triggers ss) and when to have no sp (when opponent plays shade). Against returns, time greatsword pixy and primrose right (usually greatsword needs to come 2 turns before primrose).Unit removals: spam salamanders and orks and overwhelm their units. Units that return are usually weak to compensate for their overwhelming ability.

9. Do you really need greatsword and primrose? I thought you said greatsword was enough?I changed my mind after seeing vonderclone (vonderam ss and cyclone, the most op combo in this game). Vonderclone returns your entire field, usually removing 4-5 units so you need some sort of counter.

10. Why no giant ork?I like the ranged ork much better. You can have a salamander row1 to tank a hit, protect your main units, and have commander buff thrower ork to 4 agi to still attack enemy units. The 10 more hp rarely helps more than the extra range (grebados buffs hp anyways). I would consider it if there was more filespace, but do not take out your techs for 3x giant orks, as the techs will win you a lot more games than a playset of an extra unit.\

11. Help I can't win against bigs!Try to iczer efficiently (with grebados who takes out 2lp with 1sp) though sometimes it is to your advantage to keep on iczering with other units. Know when your opponent is going to play a big unit and practice using archer pixy and mage pixy. You get 6x grebados essentially with the 3 refess grims and grebados can revive any ork that dies (prioritize iczering over reviving usually). Then there is the removal that most bigs cannot dodge (shear winds is not very popular, and even then there's a chance the removal hits), which drains a good portion of sp and takes out their field for 2 turns for more iczering. This file has one of the better big matchups and you should have no problem winning against them.

12. Why fireball breath and not fire arrow?Well, you're not increasing spheres for anything else so fire arrow does 30dmg without putting sp into spheres, which is inefficient. Usually Fireball breath is much better than fire arrow in single use. Let's go through the cases of how much sp you have and how much damage you do:SP............Fire Arrow............Fireball Breath2sp...........0dmg (can't use)......30dmg3sp...........30dmg.................30dmg+1sp left4sp...........40dmg.................30dmg+2sp left5sp...........50dmg.................30x2dmg=60dmg with more versitility (except against defense)6sp...........60dmg.................30x2dmg7sp...........70dmg.................30x2dmgSo ignoring 4sp, ask yourself when you're going to have 7sp in an ork game. Fireball breath is usually better.

13. There seems to be so little units. The starter has so many more units. Won't you run out of units?There is more units than it seems. Grebados can revive, which means saving a copy of that unit. You can also double play a unit (see tips for double playing) without much problem because again, grebados can revive the last copies. Oversoul, meeting of kings, instant revive gives you extra copies *where you need it.* Think of instant revive and oversoul as charmeleons (which if you've played a card game, is better than a specific card) that uses more sp and a set phase.

14. If you say ex mercenary girl shouldn't be played because it doesn't trigger ss, why include it?It's mostly against lawtia matchups. Ex Mercenary Girl is a good way to store 1sp while still keeping it loose. For example: opponent uses shade, but you have 0 sp that turn because you anticipated shade. However, with 0 sp, you cannot use grebados' skill. But! let's say your opponent kills an ex merc girl and ex giant ork that turn. Now ex merc girl's close returns the 1 sp that turn (while you have to wait until the unit is buried next turn for salamander) which is enough to use grebados' skill. Otherwise, it is also a reusable unit just to throw out there against bigs or nearing the end of the game (when you do not want to lose lp with sac units) to do damage and take a hit.

Playing tips1. Play Row 2. That means putting grebados in slots 7,8,9 and other orks 4,5,6. This allows easier recovery from flanking attack, diondora ss and such. Also since orks are slow, you can put a fast sac unit in row 1 (slots 1,2,3) to take a hit. If opponent does not attack, move your sac unit back and allow your orks to attack. Place thrower ork in row 2 as well unless there is no space or there is a special slasher (like dilate).Don't play Row 2 against mid/big falkow. Playing in row 1 helps against squid and lutenum.

2. Against aggressive rushes, try playing a lot of sac units for no reason than to have them killed. This allows early access to ss to tone the damage down a bit and saves your main units from the early onslaught.

3. Double play your units in certain situations. Don't be worried about too much lp loss. Especially endgame, I sometimes have 2 commander orks and 2 thrower orks out. Early game, I sometimes double play ex giant ork so that I can bury the first one (treating the first copy as a sac unit) for a ss activation. Double play can also be used if you predict return. Double play cannot be used with characters (grebados) because of character backlash.

4. Against ork mirrors, whoever gets out grebados first usually wins. Opening Emerald Carbuncle will allow you to play grebados t2. If you lash, play mage pixy to lock grebados for 2 turns so you can play a salamander and then grebados on t4. If you're really worried about mirror matchups or if folrart is absolutely swarming with orks, whoever has the most mage pixies will win (keep on lashing until one goes through).

Last edited by Icyman2 on Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:16 pm, edited 3 times in total.